1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for loading and unloading vehicles, and more particularly to a mechanical/electrical material lift platform for vans and trucks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hydraulic power lift gates for trucks are in common use, but such hydraulic lift gates or elevators have serious limitations. Such conventional devices are relatively expensive and are accordingly usually only installed in trucks used exclusively or primarily for transporting the heavy items for which powered loading and unloading is necessary, not in vehicles used for general purposes. Hydraulic mechanisms are usually complicated and difficult to repair, requiring specialized technical skills and considerable down-time. Lift gates ordinarily have a platform that always extends outside the truck body, and can thus be easily damaged when backing trucks into loading docks.
Small vans are often lower than existing loading docks, so that goods must be lowered, rather than lifted during loading, and conventional lift gates cannot serve this function. These and other drawbacks have limited the use of hydraulic lift gates, and the need remains for a simple, effective yet inexpensive loading device which is economically available even to the operators of small trucks and vans.